Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 23:58:50 GMT
Server: Apache/1.2-dev
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Last-Modified: Wed, 07 Feb 1996 01:34:28 GMT
ETag: "4efca-1430-311801a4"
Content-Length: 5168
Accept-Ranges: bytes

<html>
<head><title>The SodaBot Home Page</title></head>
<body>
<!WA0><img src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/logo.gif">
<h2>  Welcome to the SodaBot/SodaBotL Home Page!</h2>
<p>
SodaBot is a research project of the 
<!WA1><A HREF="http://www.ai.mit.edu/">
MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab</A>
aimed at simplifying the construction of <em>software agents</em>.  It
is part of the lab's <!WA2><A
href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/hci/hci.html"> Intelligent
Room</a> project.
<p>
<!WA3><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/icon.new.gif" ALT="NEW!" align="bottom">
A <em>draft</em> of a new SodaBot <!WA4><A
HREF="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/mhcoen/sodabot.ps">paper</a>.  We
overview SodaBot and present an example from the ongoing effort
towards building a multi-agent, distributed brain for the <!WA5><A
href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/hci/hci.html"> Intelligent
Room</a>.
<p>
View the (somewhat outdated) <!WA6><a
href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/slideshow/total/index.html">
SodaBot slide show</a>!
<p> 
<!WA7><IMG align=middle SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/icon.stop.gif"> If you don't know what a software
agent is, you should click <!WA8><A
HREF="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/mhcoen/agents/chapter2_1.html">
 here</A> before proceeding!
<p>
<h2>
<!WA9><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/line.colorbar.gif" ALT="-----">
<h1> The SodaBot System:</h1>
<p>
<!WA10><img src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/what.gif"> <BR> 
</h2>

<em> The Philosophy:</em> Software agents should be
written using a vocabulary not provided by traditional programming
languages --- <em> it should be possible to create agents solely by
specifying their abstract behavior.</em>
<p>

<em> The Application:</em> We introduce <em>SodaBot</em>, a
general-purpose software agent user-environment and construction
system.  Its primary component is the <em>basic software agent</em> --- a
computational framework for building agents which is essentially an
<em>agent operating system</em>.  We also present a new language for
programming the basic software agent whose primitives are designed
around human-level descriptions of agent activity.  Via this
programming language, <em> users can easily implement a wide-range of
  typical software agent applications</em>, e.g.  personal on-line
assistants and meeting scheduling agents.
<p>
<!WA11><img src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/why.gif"> <BR>
<UL>
<!WA12><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/ball.red.gif" ALT="*">
Software agents are technically challenging to write in traditional
programming languages.  Writing agents requires large amounts of
esoteric system-hacking knowledge, e.g., of network communication,
reliable transaction protocols, etc.
<br><!WA13><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/ball.red.gif" ALT="*"> Software agents are difficult to distribute because they tend to
have many site specific dependencies; for the same reason, they can be
difficult to install.
<br><!WA14><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/ball.red.gif" ALT="*"> People may be uncomfortable with the amount of responsibility
given to unknown (and possibly buggy) agents.
</menu>
<p>
<!WA15><img src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/how.gif"> <BR>
SodaBot provides:
<UL>
<!WA16><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/ball.blue.gif" ALT="*"> A universal computational framework -- the <em> Basic Software
Agent </em> -- for creating and using agent applications.
<br>  <!WA17><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/ball.blue.gif" ALT="*"> A very high level agent programming language -- <em> SodaBotL
</em> -- that provides the right level of abstraction to allow simple
construction of complex agent applications.  SodaBotL is used to
program the basic software agent.
<br>  <!WA18><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/ball.blue.gif" ALT="*"> A graphic user-interface
<br>  <!WA19><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/ball.blue.gif" ALT="*"> Automatic distribution of software agents across the Internet.
</ul>
<p>
<!WA20><img src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/where.gif">  & <!WA21><img src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/who.gif"> <BR>
SodaBot is in use at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab.  It is being
developed by <!WA22><A HREF="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/mhcoen/mhcoen.html">
Michael Coen</A> and <!WA23><A HREF="http://push-pin.mit.edu/jdk.html">Joshua
Kramer</a> under the auspices of the <!WA24><A
href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/hci/hci.html">HCI group</a>.
<p>
<!WA25><img src="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/when.gif"> <BR>
<b>SodaBot is currently undergoing limited-distribution beta-testing.
Source code is not yet publically available.</b>
<p>
<!WA26><IMG SRC="http://www.ai.mit.edu/gifs/line.colorbar.gif" ALT="-----">
<p>
<H2>To find out more about SodaBot:</H2>
<MENU>
<li>View the <!WA27><a
href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/sodabot/slideshow/total/index.html">
SodaBot slide show!</a>
<li> Coen, Michael.  <!WA28><A
HREF="ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/users/mhcoen/extended-abstract.ps">
<em> Extended Abstract</em></a>. September, 1994. (Proceedings of 1994
CIKM Workshop on Intelligent Information Agents.)
<li> Coen, Michael.  <!WA29><A
HREF="ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/users/mhcoen/aitr-1493.ps.Z">
<em>SodaBot: A Software Agent Environment and Construction
System</em></A>.  MIT AI Lab Technical Report <em>1493,</em> June,
1994. 
</MENU> 
<p>

<hr>

<ADDRESS> <!WA30><A HREF="http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/mhcoen/mhcoen.html">
Michael Coen</A>,  <!WA31><A HREF="http://www.cs.indiana.edu/finger/gateway?mhcoen@ai.mit.edu">
<TT>mhcoen@ai.mit.edu</TT></A></ADDRESS>
<ADDRESS>Room 835</ADDRESS>
<ADDRESS>MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory</ADDRESS>
<ADDRESS>545 Technology Square</ADDRESS>
<ADDRESS>Cambridge, MA 02139</ADDRESS>
<ADDRESS>(617) 253-8916</ADDRESS>
<ADDRESS>FAX: (617) 253-5060 </ADDRESS>
<!-- hhmts start -->
<!-- hhmts end -->
</body> </html>

